Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Hi there!I hope your
week is going just swimmingly.Today I
am sharing the rest of my 24 Before 25 list!If you missed the first half of the list, you can find it here.

13. Successfully grow herbs in my apartment.I have tried this a few times, and it usually
goes pretty well because I have a perfect spot for growing things.The top of my refrigerator is out of the
reach of nosy cats, and it gets plenty of sunlight.However, the last time I was growing a
rosemary plant there, I had unknowingly bought it from a garden store with a
bug issue in their soil, and it contaminated all of my potted plants.Ew.This time, I am going to try water-rooting some basil, rosemary, lavender,
and mint, then planting them in potting soil myself to avoid any unfortunate
six-legged hangers-on.

14. Spin new-to-me fibers!I would like to branch out and try spinning some fibers that I have
never spun before, like Cormo, Rambouillet, and Targhee.I will be attending two fiber festivals in
the next few months—those should be a great opportunity to start on this goal!

15. Keep flowers in my apartment more often.Flowers sometimes seem like a frivolous
purchase, but they make me so happy every time I see them in a pitcher on my
kitchen table, and that has to be worth something.

16. Be less self-critical.Like most people, I think, I sometimes find myself mentally beating
myself up for something that really isn’t a big deal.It isn’t a productive or helpful behavior,
and I would never hold anyone else to the standards that I hold myself to, so I
am trying to curb that kind of negative self-talk.

17. Sew more of my own clothing.This blog is called Julie Rose Sews, for
crying out loud.I haven’t done a ton of
sewing for myself since I graduated from FIT two years ago, but I have a lovely
fabric stash and I work in the New York City garment district.I’m certainly not lacking in materials—I just
have to make the time.

18. Knit more from my Ravelry queue instead of looking for
new patterns.I really like everything
in my queue, so it should be the first place I look when I am trying to decide
what to do with a skein of yarn.I’d
like to knit through at least 10 patterns from my queue before I turn 25.

19. Speaking of which, I would like to knit at least 15
hexipuffs a month for my Beekeeper’s Quilt so that I have some hope of
finishing it soon!This shouldn’t be too
hard—I can knit about 1.5 hexipuffs a day on my commute to and from the
city.I just have to resist the
temptation to put a shiny new project into my bag instead!

20. Spin at least 4 oz. a month.Originally I had wanted to spin 8 oz. a
month, but I don’t think that’s realistic given that I like to spin teeny tiny
yarn.If I spin 4 oz. a month, I will
have spun through my almost my entire fiber stash by my next birthday! Aaaaaah!Must supplement the stash!

21. Give only handmade or vintage gifts for Christmas,
whether made by me or by someone else.I
usually make most of my gifts, but this year I would like to fill in the gaps
with gifts purchased on Etsy or from craft fairs or flea markets.

22. Get back to learning French before I forget all of the
French that I learned in college.I
really enjoyed learning French, but it kind of fell off my radar after
graduation.According to my professor, I
picked it up very quickly and easily, and I still have all of my French books.

23. Knit/spin through my yarn/fiber stash so that nothing
sits in my yarn cabinet longer than a year and a half.I feel guilty about accumulating new yarn and
fiber when I have beautiful things just waiting at home, and I do truly love
everything that I already have.My lovely
yarn and fiber shouldn’t be neglected just because it’s not shiny and new.

24.Spend more time with friends. As an introverted person
living in an extraverted world, it can be hard for me to give up some of my
precious alone time to go spend time with other people.Whenever I do rally myself to go hang out
with friends, I am always so glad that I did.I am happy with being an introvert, but everyone needs to push a bit
outside their comfort zone sometimes.

Well, there you have it!I have ten months and nine days to accomplish these goals.Do you have any goals to achieve before your
next birthday?I would love to hear
about them!

Monday, August 18, 2014

Hi and happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend and that you're starting the week feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. Today I'd like to share the first half of my '24 before 25' list-- a list of 24 things I would like to do before my 25th birthday! I had originally planned to do the entire list in one post, but it would be way too long. The second half should be posted by the end of the week. Some of these are goals with a tangible outcome, and others are more internal. My 24th birthday was back in June, so I have about ten months to accomplish whatever I can from this list.

1. Make a quilt. I love quilts, I think they are so cozy and comforting. I also love vintage fabric and I have lots of little scraps that are too small to make clothing or even an accessory out of, but even the smallest scraps should have enough for at least a few quilt squares. I'm supplementing my vintage scraps with some new fabrics in sweet, charming prints, too.

2. Get back to a regular exercise schedule. Here is a not-so-secret secret: I hate exercising! I hate it! I hate putting on ugly workout clothes, I hate being sweaty, I hate stopping whatever fun thing I'm doing to go exercise-- there are very few aspects I like. But I feel much, much better about my health and about life in general when I'm working out (ha-- that makes it sound like I'm very hardcore about it. Not the case.) on a regular basis. I'm hoping to get back to doing my cheesy, 80's-tastic DVD workout twice a week and doing yoga (also from DVDs, but somehow much less cheesy due to the lack of neon spandex) three times a week.

3. Make a wonderful Christmas present for my wonderful boyfriend. This one is already planned out! And he knows it's planned out! Bwahahaha. I inherited my grandmother's affinity for not only plotting what to get or make someone for Christmas absurdly far in advance, but then alerting the recipient so that they have months and months to wonder what it will be.

4. Continue to make my apartment into a cozy home, particularly by hanging pictures. I have plaster walls, so I have to use the nailhead version of Command Strips to hand pictures in my hallway, where I am planning to have a gallery wall, and in my kitchen. I am lucky enough to have picture rail molding in my bedroom and my living room, so the only tools needed for hanging anything on those walls are picture rail hooks and picture hanging wire.

5. Knit another sweater for myself! I never shared my finished Twigs and Willows cardigan on the blog because I just wasn't happy with how it turned out, and consequently, I never wear it. With another year of knitting experience and a lot more knowledge, I would like to knit another sweater and fit it to my own body instead of strictly following a pattern. I bought the yarn to knit Ink last year at Rhinebeck, and I'm wondering whether it would be too crazy to try to knit it before Rhinebeck this year, which is October 19th and 20th. Actually, I can answer that question right now: yes, it would be crazy, because I am currently working on a huge secret knitting project that will probably take another month to finish. But I might still try.

6. Try more recipes from my collection of cookbooks. I love cookbooks and I have a nice little collection of them, but I tend to get stuck in a rut of the same dozen or so recipes.

7. Continue bullet journaling every day. Ryder Carroll, who invented the Bullet Journal technique, describes it as "the difference between being busy and being productive," and I've definitely found that to be true. Besides, it's just so satisfying to check off the task boxes.

8. Do more art journaling. My art journal is a place where I can express myself, gather inspiration, work through challenges, and exercise my creativity, and I really enjoy filling it with thoughts and images. I just haven't been making time for it lately and I miss it.

9. Actually craft and cook from my 'things to make' and 'yummy' boards on Pinterest. If I pinned it, I must have thought it would be fun or cute or tasty, so why not give it a try?

10.Blog on a regular basis. I love to read blogs, and I love to share my inspiration and creative endeavors and life experiences with all of you. It's one of those things that I just have to make the time to do, because I am much happier when I am blogging on a regular basis. If I managed to blog every day when I was in school at the Fashion Institute of Technology and had virtually no free time at all, I can certainly make a go of it now when I'm working regular hours and not spending my weekends doing homework!

11. Visit the wildlife preserve near my apartment more often. It's so inspiring to be in a quiet, natural place, especially since I go into Manhattan every weekday for work.

12. Learn to acknowledge my own needs. I have always been a nurturing person, and sometimes I put the needs of others before my own a little too readily and often (fellow Cancerians, I know you understand me on this one!). I can't take care of anyone else if I'm not taking care of myself. This certainly doesn't mean I'm planning on becoming a self-important egomaniac, of course (ick!), but I would like to get to find a better balance.

Do you have any goals that you're working on achieving before your next birthday? Or any time, really! I'd love to hear about them. I can't wait to share the rest of my list with you!

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

I adapted the recipe from this one, featured on Happyolks (which is a wonderfully sincere and very enjoyable blog! Definitely go
check it out.And their video for this
recipe is adorable.)

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups flour

2 Tbsp packed brown sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

A pinch of freshly ground sea salt

½ cup cold butter, cut into chunks (leave this in the fridge
until you’re ready to use it!)

1 ½ cups fresh strawberries, cut into small pieces

4 Tbsp minced basil (or more, if you would like your scones
on the zesty side)

½ cup milk

2 eggs

1 Tbsp white sugar

Preheat oven to 400° F.In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and sea
salt.Cut in the chunks of butter using
a pastry blending tool or your fingers.Add
in strawberries and basil.In a small
bowl, mix eggs and milk.Add to flour
mixture and stir together until the dough is uniformly mixed.You might have to use your hands to get all
of the flour incorporated with the egg and milk mixture.

Put the mixture onto a parchment paper lined baking
sheet.Press it into a 1” thick
circle.Cut the circle into wedges—I cut
mine into 8 wedges, but they were pretty big, so I’ll probably cut the circle
into 12 wedges next time.Brush the top
with a bit more milk and sprinkle the white sugar on top.Pop the whole thing into the freezer for 15
minutes, then bake for 20-25 minutes. (Check your scones after 20 minutes—my oven
is a little on the slower side).You can
tell the scones are finished baking when a knife inserted near the center comes
out clean, and the top of the scones looks matte, not shiny.

These are especially delicious warm with a bit of
butter!They can stay at room
temperature for about a day in a covered dish.After that, they should be refrigerated.These scones also freeze very nicely, and can be thawed and warmed up for a sweet, summery snack at a moment's notice.